Shape and Mass

A shape is a two-dimensional area with identifiable boundaries. A mass is a three-dimensional solid with identifiable boundaries. Form is a tricky term for it has many meaning. It may mean shapes or mass it can refer generally to the way a work of art looks or the way it was out together or it can also mean composition or structure or even styles. In for these two have the most easily restricted definitions and lend themselves more readily to analysis.


Shapes are created by lines by color areas by contrasting textures or by some combinations of these. If the artist draws a circle and colors it red the result will be round red shape. Mass has actual depth in space. Sometimes it implies bulk, density and weight. An orange is a piece of fruit it is also a spherical orange mass. Circles and squares are shapes spheres and cubes are masses. Two bread categories of shapes are geometric and organic.